John Dilbeck Musings

Healthy Coffee House (Murphy, NC US)

Come visit the Healthy Coffee House, Bed & Breakfast, and Bakery.

Have a drink on us!

Buy one, get one free any drink in the Healthy Coffee House.

Stay one night, second night half price.

Free wireless internet service.

Expires: This coupon expires on January 24, 2009.

Restrictions: One coupon per week per customer

Click the “Get Details” link below. You will go a new page where you can have the required coupon e-mailed to you instantly. Then print out the coupon and redeem at:

Healthy Coffee House
215 Peachtree ST
Murphy, NC 28906, USA

Questions on this offer?

Contact: Healthy Coffee House via Phone: 828-837-1515

Get Details and Money-Saving Coupon

In December, 2007, SFI Marketing Group introduced MaxMalls.com.

In essence, SFI has joined the affiliate program of many of the top-ranked and most-liked stores on the Internet and has built a simple portal to all of these stores.

In addition to the convenience of starting at MaxMalls.com to go to your favorite stores - or a store you’ve never browsed - you’ll be helping children in impoverished countries around the world.

How?

SFI will donate a portion of every MaxMalls sale to the nonprofit organization, Save The Children.

Their goal is to have thousands of major, name-brand stores in MaxMalls.

Please note that going to any of the stores in MaxMalls is exactly like going to the store directly and you will pay the exact same amount for your purchases, too.

The only real differences for shoppers is that there are many stores conveniently located in one place and you can be happy that a portion of each of your purchases, if you start at MaxMalls.com, will be donated to Save The Children.

Not bad for just a couple of extra clicks when you start shopping.

Act on your dream!

JD

I earn, you earn, WeAllEarn.com. ™

I earn, you earn, WeAllEarn.com ™.

The EyeEarn co-op is active and already producing new affiliates. So far, I’ve had 9 new sign-ups through EyeEarn.

You can tell they come through EyeEarn by selecting the Key Codes format of your genealogy report. They will have a code of 1100 (which was also the code of the discontinued Eagle Co-Op).

I received my start up kit a couple of days ago and everything in it looks first class.

Now, I need to put the sticker on my car and upload a photo when the photo uploading link goes active today, or soon.

To remain a member of EyeEarn, we’ll need to requalify during the last five days of each month, so I just put a new recurring event in my iCal program to remind me.

I have a feeling EyeEarn will be a great recruiting tool for SFI.

After brainstorming for a bit, I registered WeAllEarn.com and redirect it to my affiliate link for EyeEarn. It will make it easier for advertising both online and offline.

Now, let’s promote EyeEarn and make it very successful.

I earn, you earn, WeAllEarn.com ™.

Act on your dream!

JD

If your business is located in one of the major metropolitan areas of the United States, you may want to try the new Shop For Ethernet service offered by Telarus and Cognigen.

Why is Ethernet the future?

Ethernet is a matter of plugging your network directly into a telecom provider’s network and bypassing your local phone company. Having direct access to customers allows the broadband Internet provider to control the user’s experience from end to end and reduce the cost.

These savings are passed on to you.

How does Shop For Ethernet work?

1. You enter your building address in the form at Shop For Ethernet.

2. You will see a map with your location along with markers of surrounding buildings who have been “lit” by the major telecom service providers.

3. If you would like to learn more, you can enter you contact information to receive a phone call from our staff of Ethernet service experts.

How is Shop For Ethernet valuable?

The GeoQuote Ethernet locator is valuable for people or business who are looking to:

* move into a building with existing carrier facilities.

* substantially upgrade their current broadband connections.

* establish a direct relationship with a provider without the local Bell in the equation.

* find a carrier who provides QoS (Quality of Service) guarantees. Since the carrier you select is in complete control of your connection, it is much easier for them to provide QoS.

* gather information that will be helpful in the planning stages of broadband deployment for a new real-estate development.

Is Shop For Ethernet free?

Yes. We do not require that you pay a fee to access this information - however, we do require that you purchase service through us if you decide to buy. We are compensated from the participating carriers when you order through us, which pays for the development and maintenance of this web site.

Can I order Ethernet service online?

Not yet. Even if our Ethernet lookup tool shows you are in an On-Net building, we must still go through a manual check on both pricing and service availability. However, know that our Ethernet Experts are here to assist you with every step of the process.

Shop For Ethernet is not for all businesses

Shop For Ethernet is for the largest businesses that need lots of bandwidth (100 to 1000 mbps) and are located in areas with buildings that are served by fast ethernet and gigabit ethernet providers.

It is not for all businesses and certainly not for residential broadband provisioning.

Other alternatives: Business T1, DS3, and faster

If fast ethernet isn’t available in your location, or if you just don’t need that much bandwidth, you can find what is available in your area. Shop For T1 offers real-time lookup of broadband providers offering T1, DS3, and other Internet connections. Our broadband experts have helped hundreds of companies provision better service connections and most of them have saved money in the process.

Small business and residential DSL, Cable Modem, and Satellite broadband

If you are looking for affordable broadband for your small business or home use, Shop For DSL offers real-time lookup of DSL, Cable Modem, and Satellite broadband providers in your location.

We can’t find a broadband connection for everyone - I live in an area without DSL access, for instance - but the first-class providers we help you find are extending their networks every day.

Act on your dream!

JD

After a very long hiatus, while I was trying to decide on a new approach, I have published the latest issue of the Act On Your Dream! newsletter.

It is archived at Act On Your Dream! — Issue #6 — Getting back on track

If you would like, you can subscribe to Act On Your Dream to get the next issues when they are published.

I intend to publish the newsletter on a regular basis, probably twice a month, and I want to feature you and what you are doing to act on your dream.

What can we do to help each other find the success and freedom we all want?

Act on your dream!

JD

(This article is part of my Marketing Tools and Techniques: Traffic Exchanges series.)

Normally, I won’t be promoting the latest and (supposedly) greatest thing, so don’t be afraid that I’ll bombard you with untested programs that may be here today and gone tomorrow.

I prefaced this recommendation because Soaring For Traffic is a new traffic exchange, but I believe it will be around for a long time and I think it will rise to be one of the best.

I’ve known Ray for a few months and I have seen for myself that he knows quite a bit about Internet marketing and is always working to learn more and to share what he learns with others.

I first met him on the Affiliate Funnel forum, where he answered some of my questions about ad tracking on traffic exchanges. I did some searching and found that he is the owner of Private Success Team, where he is busily helping others learn how to market on the Internet more successfully.

I recently learned that he has been working for about a year to introduce Soaring For Traffic, his free traffic exchange and downline builder.

Lately, I’ve become more discerning when it comes to traffic exchanges and I’m reaching the point where I probably won’t join too many more.

Over the last year, I’ve joined and used about 75 traffic exchanges with varying amounts of success. Now, I’m a member in about 60 and actively use about 20 of them.

I am an upgraded member in about a dozen exchanges, and I just upgraded my account with Soaring For Traffic.

Although Soaring For Traffic is free, you will get more traffic with less time and effort by upgrading to one of the two upgrade levels. I chose the highest upgrade and I’m looking forward to using this exchange a lot in the coming months.

I added about 170 sites to this exchange in one fell swoop by using my Page Swirl rotator and spent another hour or two advertising it on some of my marketing pages, including my LinkScout marketing site.

After I’d finished setting everything up, it was time to surf the new exchange and see how I liked it.

I found a couple of small errors when setting up to use the exchange, but surfing the sites of other members was easy and the site responded quickly, even on my very slow dial-up connection.

The downline builder part of the site contains five money making affiliate programs and I’m a member of three of them. I didn’t count the number of traffic exchanges in the downline builder, but almost all of my favorites were there and I saw only a handful of sites I’d never tried before.

I know that Ray will be a helpful and responsive owner, and that is a big part of being an upgraded member of an exchange.

Even though Soaring For Traffic is new, it already has nearly 1,500 members and is growing quickly.

Regarding the problems I encountered, one was just an incorrect height and width attribute in the HTML code for a 100×300 sidebar button link. That was easily corrected, and I’ll let Ray know about it as soon as I publish this.

The other was a bit more of a problem, but probably has an easy solution. The site offers a way to personalize one of the splash pages that can be used on other traffic exchanges. It features your name, photo, a banner, and a testimonial.

I filled in the form and submitted it, only to be told that the banner URL was incorrect. No problem; the exchange is new. However, the real problem, for me, was that the error page did not preserve the entries on the form that were correct. As a result, a very complimentary testimonial was lost.

Ray, if you read this, I said some nice things about you that nobody will read because the form lost my heartfelt compliments.

With only a couple of minor negatives (which I’m sure Ray will fix quickly) and lots of positives, I heartily recommend Soaring For Traffic to you.

If you want to be a free member, this exchange is better than most.

If you plan to upgrade, the prices are right and the One-Time-Offer page offers good discount pricing for an annual or lifetime membership.

If that doesn’t fit your budget, the second One-Time-Offer (OTO) page offers a 33% discount on the highest upgrade level, making it a good buy. Normally, the highest level, Soaring Eagle, costs $14.95 per month, and I think that is over-priced for a 1:1 surf ratio and anything less than 1,000 credits per month. However, the second OTO page offers the Soaring Eagle level for $9.99, and I think that is the proper price for what is offered.

I don’t know if either of these discount pages will be available should you join, nor what they may offer at that time. These things are always subject to change.

If you don’t take advantage of either OTO page, you’ll pay more, perhaps a lot more, in the long run.

Soaring For Traffic will be one of the dozen or so traffic exchanges I’ll use on a regular basis.

You can join Soaring For Traffic for free and see for yourself how well it works for you.

Act on your dream!

JD

I want to thank my friend, Jerry Chautin, for alerting me to an article in the New York Times, A Basket Case in North Carolina, written by David Rakoff, and published on May 20, 2007.

In this article, the author talks about taking a week-long class at the John C Campbell Folk School, in Brasstown, NC.

Originally, like most men, he wanted to experience the thrill of blacksmithing, of smiting hot steel and shaping it into new forms with fire, hammer, and anvil, but (for reasons he details in the article) he changed to taking a basket weaving class.

As a true lover of the Folk School and all that goes on there, I felt the resonance of reading what I know to be true about the Folk School experience, not just what happens when taking a class and learning a new skill, or improving your ability to create pieces of art in your chosen craft.

Mr. Rakoff talks about the unexpected moments of silence and “getting into the zone” that artists strive for while transforming the vision in our minds into the item in our hands.

This is one of the best articles I’ve read about the Folk School, and I recommend it to you. I don’t know how long the New York Times keeps these articles archived, so maybe you should read A Basket Case in North Carolina, now.

(For more information about the John C. Campbell Folk School, its classes, crafts, and events, call 828-837-2775 or 1-800-FOLK-SCH (800-365-5724) or visit www.folkschool.org.)

(From the Folk School Website:)

The new Blacksmith studio fundraising campaign has begun!

Timber framers from all over will gather at the Folk School for an old fashioned barn raising!

The John C. Campbell Folk School is proud to announce plans for an annex to the historic Blacksmith Shop, originally dedicated to Francis Whittaker in recognition of his two decades of teaching and demonstrating at the school.

Whittaker, known as the “Dean of American Blacksmiths,” devoted his life to keeping the art of blacksmithing alive in this country and the existing studio stands as his symbolic legacy. But, while Blacksmithing has long been the most popular of some 50 programs the Folk School offers, the shop has suffered decades of wear and its space is no longer adequate for the size and diversity of classes such a premier program should offer.

The solution is to renovate the Whittaker Studio and to build an annex with the help of the Timber Framers Guild, which has offered to assemble close to 80 timber framers to do a traditional barn-raising in June 2008.

Fundraising for the project kicked off with a $1000 gift from longtime instructor Lou Mueller. Clay Spencer, nationally known blacksmith and fixture at the school also donated $1000. Not to be outdone, Don Neuenschwander, a long time student and friend of the Folk School from Indiana, donated $5000. Julie Clark, Folk School blacksmith instructor, donated $10,000!

While the full architectural plans have not been finalized, the project cost is estimated at an ambitious $500,000. With the strength and spirit of the Blacksmithing community, we are confident the goal can be met. Ours is a community that is resourceful, creative and, like the Folk School, dedicated to the spread of knowledge and education about blacksmithing.

Please contact Susi Hall, Development Manager, at susi@folkschool.org or at 828-837-2775 ext. 118 to contribute or to discuss making a gift and Paul Garrett, Resident Artist for Blacksmithing, at pdg86@hotmail.com or 828-835-8441 with ideas to assist with the project.

Learn more about the new Blacksmithing annex on the Folk School’s website.

Mountain Brew Coffee House (Murphy, NC 28906) has a nice offers coupon for new and loyal returning customers for their specialty drinks. The offer will expire on December 31, 2007.

Buy One Specialty Drink and Get One 50 Percent Off. Click the link to get the details and to have the coupon emailed to you.

You can redeem this nice offer at Mountain Brew Coffee House, located in the Hickory Oaks Plaza at 1370 US Hwy 64 West in Murphy, NC 28906. Their phone number is 828-835-9848.

Over 4000 merchants in over 100 countries are offering Nice Offers to reward new and returning customers. If you are a merchant, you can advertise for free and pay only for results. You set the terms of the coupons you offer.

Merchants get more business and only pay for advertising that works; customers save money by patronizing their favorite businesses.

If you live in, or travel through, Murphy, NC, and want an outstanding specialty drink in a relaxed atmosphere, redeem your Buy One Specialty Drink and Get One 50 Percent Off coupon at Mountain Brew Coffee House.

Brad Fallon, CEO, has recently introduced Free IQ, an interesting new website that brings content providers, purchasers, and affiliates together.

Free IQ looks to me like it combines some of the features of several sites that are doing well: Squidoo, Lulu, CafePress, and a few others.

Like Squidoo, Free IQ asserts that most people are an expert in something, and then provides a platform for you to express your expertise.

Lulu.com offers a place to sell your ebooks and also offers extra features for print on demand real books as well as help in marketing your real bound books in bookstores and online retailers.

CafePress provides services for selling your CDs and printed ebooks.

Free IQ offers some of these services, but in a totally different way. They do not offer print on demand services. They don’t offer an unlimited number of one-page lenses as Squidoo does, but they do offer multiple categories on your publisher’s page.

Here’s a brief introduction from the Free IQ “Learn More” page:

We believe everyone knows something that’s valuable to someone else.

And some people know things that are very valuable to many other people.

So who decides whose ideas are more valuable?

The answer, of course, is everyone! We all do. This is the “Marketplace for Ideas,” where the best knowledge, ideas and information rise to the top. At Free IQ, the best content appears at the top of every search, based on actual reviews.

In a nutshell, we base our search result rankings on the feedback and reviews by people all around the world. (In fact, Free IQ has more than one patent pending based on the way in which the very best ideas rise to the top of our search results.)

Do you have knowledge and ideas to share?

Are those ideas presentable in a video or audio format? How about an e-book or an article?

Whatever your choice of media (video, audio, or print), Free IQ is the place to offer (present?) your knowledge to the world. And we’ll host your materials and stream them - for free!

This is why, when you want to learn more about almost anything, Free IQ is the ideal place to learn from the world’s best experts - for free.

We believe that internet video offers the best way to learn what you want, when you want - and the best thing is, it’s Free!

Go ahead and try it. Search for any topic you’re interested in learning more about - from business management to marketing to software to your favorite hobby - and see all the experts and authors and speakers on that subject.

Our patent pending search algorithm causes the best information to appear at the top, based on the reviews of the free information by other people interested in that same topic. In fact, other Free IQ users all over the world screen all the available information for you, so when you want to know something, the best video and audio presentations come out on top.

Now that’s a Marketplace for Ideas!

You can read more on their site by clicking the “Learn More” link at the top of the page.

If you have information you want to share with others, you can upload your ebook, video, teleseminar, audio, or other presentation to Free IQ and make it instantly available to others.

Now, I’m brand new to this site, but I already see a problem developing.

Many people have uploaded some of the free ebooks that Ken Evoy wrote. Yes, as affiliates, they have the right to upload copies of Make Your Site Sell! or the Affiliate Masters Course.

However, this will clog the system with duplicate content, the only difference being whose affiliate links are branded in the copy that’s being distributed.

Free IQ claims that their review system will bring the best content to the top of the page, so why do we see the exact same ebooks spread throughout the page? I’m not saying the best content won’t bubble to the top over time, I just see this as one way the system will be clogged with duplicate content.

I think it would be better for a Five Pillar affiliate to write a report of his/her own and recommend good resources for people who want to become an affiliate master or sell from their sites. Then, it would be easy to reference the resources you recommend and still provide unique content that you can show on your publisher’s page.

Now, that’s how I intend to test this site. To that end, I’ve created my publisher’s page for John Dilbeck.

Currently, there is not much on the page, but I’ll be adding some articles or small ebooks as I have time to develop them. Free IQ looks to be an excellent way to market and provide your content on a site that is relatively easy to use.

Not only that, but it will help you build your mailing list. If you have an Aweber account, you can plug your mailing list in directly. If not, you can choose to have leads emailed to you.

Back to finding info on Free IQ. Just go to the Free IQ home page and either enter a search term or click one of the tags.

You will be taken to a page that has free content in the left column and paid content in the right column. In other words, you can read, view, or listen to (as appropriate) the information in the left column for free. You can purchase, should you decide to do so, the information in the right column.

If you want to review an item, give your opinion, or leave feedback, all you have to do is Join for free and create your account.

Content Providers

If you are an expert on almost any topic, Free IQ may be a good place to display your expertise and pass along your best ideas.

At the moment, while Free IQ is still in beta, there is no limit on the size of the files you upload. They will stream or let others download your products for no cost to you. If you are providing content for sale, there is no monthly fee to use the Free IQ shopping engine to sell your information products. When you make a sale, Free IQ will charge you 5% of the sales price, plus credit card processing fees. You don’t even have to have a merchant account.

Once you’ve created your free account (see above), you can upload your content and see how well the system works for you.

Currently, I’m not sure if each content provider has to take part in the affiliate program, or not.

Affiliate Program

One of the things that attracted me immediately to Free IQ is their two tier affiliate program.

If you join the Free IQ affiliate program, you will get paid for the purchases made by anyone you refer, not just once, but for an entire year! Of course, many of the people you refer will buy nothing or maybe one item. However, if he or she does buy multiple items, you’ll get paid for each of them for an entire year.

You also get paid a percentage of any content sold by any Content Providers you refer.

While not as good as having a lifetime customer, getting paid for a year of purchases beats getting paid (maybe) for a single purchase.

If you are interested, you should read the affiliate program page to learn more about some of the innovative things Free IQ is doing.

You are invited to join their affiliate program and see for yourself how it works for you.

It’s free to join and you can quit at any time if you find it doesn’t work for you.

Again, to recap, this site is still in beta and there is no way to tell if it will gain market share or not. It looks interesting to me and that’s why I’m passing it along to you.